Financial Advisor

Car Insurance: If Your Driving Record Is Bad, Can You Still Save Money?

We all make mistakes. Unfortunately your car insurance may be higher because of a bad driving record. There still may be some things you can do to save money. Think about the following:

Raise your deductibles. It takes time to improve your driving record. In the meantime, you may want to see if raising the deductible on your comprehensive and collision coverage can get you a lower premium.

Get a less expensive car. With a less expensive car, you may be able to lower your insurance costs by having only collision coverage and not comprehensive coverage.

Eliminate some of those features. Extra features like rental car reimbursement and towing coverage are handy to have, but they could be adding to your car insurance costs. It’s probably a good time to consider getting rid of features you can live without.

Boost your credit rating. More often than not, insurance companies these days use credit scores when they are assessing how much risk a driver is. They say that there is a correlation between poor credit scores and higher risk. The higher the risk you are to them, the more they will charge. In this day and age, it’s just a good idea all around to improve your credit score.

Compare car insurance quotes. You’d be surprised at how car insurance costs can vary between companies. Spend time getting comparison quotes from at least three different companies. To get accurate comparisons, make sure you are comparing the same coverages and features between companies. And remember: car insurance companies work hard to combat insurance fraud and can find out when an applicant is lying. Be truthful about your driving record; it may seem expensive now, but if you are canceled because they discovered that you lied, your car insurance will be only more expensive and more difficult to get in the future.

About the Author

Scott Lunt is a freelance writer who often writes about car insurance. If you have a bad driving record, you can compare car insurance quotes, plus find more tips for saving on insurance at LowerYourInsurance.com.

Car Insurance: If Your Driving Record Is Bad, Can You Still Save Money? by Scott Lunt